Workflow Emails

Jessica

February 28, 2019 14:02

Updated

Workflow forms are a great feature of Formstack, and they become even more powerful with the ability to control emails and submission messages. Workflow emails can be triggered based on completed or assigned workflow steps. Field logic rules can also still be used for another layer of control.

These new features of Workflow Emails stem from our Data Routing feature. You can now control Notification, Confirmation, and Workflow Assignment emails as well as Submission Messages. All of these emails can be set up in the Email & Actions section of Formstack.

You can use these new Workflow Email capabilities in many ways. One way would be to set up emails that alert the initial submitter how his/her submission is progressing through the workflow. Providing the ability to see the submission progress through each step of the workflow form will allow them to have a better view of the workflow process.

Note: The section containing the entry step participant's email address has to be editable (set to 'Can Edit') on all future steps that will trigger an email to the entry step participant. If the section is set to 'Can View' the data from that section is not able to be used. This is applicable on Notification Emails only.

Step Logic

With the introduction of workflow emails, you'll now see a new routing logic option for Step Logic rules. These are logic conditions that can be based on when specific workflow steps are finished. There are two options for Step Logic conditions: "Completed" and "Marked as Complete."

• "Completed" is for submissions that naturally get finalized by progressing through each step of the workflow.

• "Marked as Complete" is for when you have in-progress workflows that are marked completed ahead of time before fully finished. This can be done to in-progress submissions by selecting them and marking as complete under the "Mark As" dropdown.

Notification Emails

Notifications can be set up to send after each step completion of a workflow. Notification emails can also be sent to users or departments that need to be notified of a submission step, but don't have actual activities involved in the workflow.

Confirmation Emails

Confirmation emails traditionally are triggered once the submission is fully complete. Now, with workflows, you can trigger confirmations after a step of a workflow is completed.

Confirmation emails sent to the assigned user, after they've completed their step of the workflow, gives the user assurance their step was completed successfully, and also gives them a copy of their submission for their records. These emails can be set up to send after each workflow step is completed, or only after a specific step is done.

Notice that you can still add Field Logic Rules as well to each email. This allows you to still send a confirmation email after the first step is completed that is also restricted to send when a Field Logic Rule applies.

Note: Currently it is by design that emails sent out after a specific step is completed can only contain data from that step. This means if you have a 3 step Workflow and set up an email to send out after Step 2 is completed, only that data entered into the form for Step 2 can be contained in the email and all data submitted in Step 1 will not appear.

Workflow Assignment Emails

We have created a new type of email, Workflow Assignment Email, where you can customize what gets sent to participants when they are assigned to complete their step of your Workflow. You can use Logic to determine which emails get sent based on step completion for your Workflow form.

This is not a requirement. The default workflow assignment emails will be sent if you decide not to set up custom assignment emails.

Please note: You don't need to add Routing Logic for emails or messages that should be displayed after workflow completion. This is the default for emails and messages set up on workflow forms.

You can set up Workflow Assignment Emails in both default and custom message format. Using a custom message allow you to control the message and the information you'd like to include in this assignment email. You have full control of both the email subject and the FROM address. (The FROM address will function in the same fashion as all other Formstack emails.) You'll also see a preview of the completion button at the bottom where you can also set the button label text.

Submission Messages

Messages and redirects after submission can also be customized based on the step of the workflow. This is great functionality to be able to control what is presented at the end of each individual step of the workflow. You can utilize redirects to send participants of a step to another URL.